About the Centre
Fostering engaged, innovative research into placed histories across all regions and periods, from the rural to the urban and the parish to the metropolis.
Who we are
The Centre for the History of People, Place and Community builds on the IHR’s long-standing expertise in local history, and in urban and metropolitan history.
We bring together academics, heritage professionals, community groups, creative practitioners, and all those interested in places and their stories. Our aim is to promote inclusive, imaginative approaches to making history. Projects within the Centre range from the Victoria County History, founded in 1899, to the pioneering Layers of London crowdsourced digital history project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
We also offer training, a programme of events, and a conceptual space for everyone working on place, people and the past to connect, experiment and share ideas.
Connections and conversations
We are outward-looking and keen to identify where research can meet challenges and opportunities in the real world today. Our Advisory Board helps us make connections and start conversations. Current members are:
- Sibia Akhtar, Associate Curator (Power Hall) at the Science and Industry Museum, Manchester
- John Cattell, National Head of Research, Historic England
- Matthew Davies, Professor of Urban History and Executive Dean, School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London
- Michael Eades, Head of Civic Engagement, Goldsmiths, University of London
- Victoria Hoyle, Director of the Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past, University of York
- Sara Huws, Civic Engagement at Cardiff University Libraries and Archives; broadcaster; Co-founder, East End Women’s Museum
- Ani Lacey, Assistant Curator at the American Museum & Gardens, Bath
- David Killingray, chair of the trustees, British Association for Local History; Emeritus Professor of Modern History, Goldsmiths, University of London
- Nicholas Kingsley (ex officio as a trustee of the Victoria County History Trust)
- Nayan Kulkarni, artist
- Keith Lilley, Professor in the School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen's University Belfast
- Neil Redfern, Executive Director, Council for British Archaeology
- Iain Robertson, Centre for History, University of the Highlands and Islands
- Louise Ryland-Epton, Victoria County History contributing editor and Visiting Fellow, Open University
- Roey Sweet, Professor of Urban History, University of Leicester
- Sophie Vohra, Research Associate at the National Railway Museum and University of York
